National Budget for 9.29/30

CHECK THIS OUT: NEW WEEKLY BUSINESS RAIL, with bits and pieces – short nuggets that can be used separately, with a business digest or as a standalone rail on your business page.

For 9/29-31/07 editions

Here are the top national stories coming today from GateHouse News Service. Stories are available at http://www.gatehousenewsservice.com/. Please submit stories below no later than 6 pm local time, unless you have breaking news that is changing significantly.

THIS WEEK IN WEIRD: Leads with a rogue pig captured by some high school athletes helping law enforcement, and includes stories about outsourcing singing telegrams to India and others. These are great “talker” digests, even to include in your own national digest. In / news
ART: pig chase

MORE LEAD PAINT - Yet another bunch of Chinese-made toys is being recalled due to lead paint. Talking to medical experts, how dangerous is lead paint on toys? And what do parents (who may well have played with plenty of toys with lead paint growing up) think - is this overblown or a big deal? Patriot Ledger, Lambert, 15 inches, 6 p.m.

RICKS PLACE: Cheap Trickster Rick Nielsen wants to build a hotel, restaurant and museum for his guitars at Riverside and I-90. The county will offer a 10-year property tax break for the project. ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR, words 450. Evening / Illinois and Illinois News
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LITTLE ROCK NINE: Melba Patillo Beals, one of the Little Rock Nine, speaks at Blackburn College at 10 a.m. This week is the 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower calling in the Army to allow nine black students to enter Central High School in Little Rock. Rushton w/handout photo. Springfield, evening / Illinois and Illinois News

Fantasy Football: Are you a frustrated LaDainian Tomlinson owner like me, filled with self doubt, suffering from a lack of sleep, and an 0-3 record to start the season? The fantasy campaign started out so promising.Paul Arco, Rockford
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DENNIS ROBAUGH COLUMN: Baseball’s really about all the moments in between: My baseball team made it to this year’s playoffs. My team is among the handful of storied Major League clubs to torment its fans with bleak stretches of futility and thrill them with hot streaks toward a pennant, only to break their hearts. In / opinions
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NOAH BLUNDO COLUMN: An in-depth analysis of Cheney-as-Vader claim: A few months into the Iraq war, when we found out we couldn't just scare the natives into compliance with cap guns, the media got a good lickin' for helping to sell the war as a cakewalk by acting as a transcription service to the president. Since then, political journalists have redoubled their efforts and honed their skills to instead become a transcription service to any fool who wants to run for president.?NEW PHILADELPHIA / in / columns, Blundo, Noah
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EDITORIAL ON TERRORISM: Terrorists’ aims are not to eradicate our entire population, although if they could they would likely try. PATRIOT LEDGER / in / editorials

EDITORIAL: SHUNNING THE ADL - As we have learned from history, education, not isolation, is the way to combat ignorance, and Scituate and other towns looking to shun the ADL because of their stance on the Armenian genocide would be better served by using their status as a certified No Place for Hate community to effectuate change with their anti-bigotry partner. Patriot Ledger, 15 inches, 6 p.m.

Coming Monday (Biz)

INTRODUCING: The Business Rail: A compilation of bits and pieces that you can use separately, as part of a digest, or as a rail. Evening / Business

WORKWISE COLUMN: Blasting a bad verbal reference . What do you do if a former employer is bad-mouthing you. MILDRED CULP / in / business columns
ART: column mug

MARGARITA MAKER FOR BUFFET FANS: Searchin' for your lost shaker of salt? Altitude in Somerville can help. The firm just designed a new Frozen Concoction Maker for the Jimmy-Buffet-centered Margaritaville company. SOMERVILLE / in / business
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WORKING TO PREVENT E. COLI: In the wake of recent recalls of bagged salad greens tainted with E. coli bacteria, a Wooster microbiologist says consumers can take steps to enhance food safety. Less certain is what exactly causes the problem. CANTON / in / business